Video Interview: Kobayashi Yasuo in Kodaira

Kobayashi Yasuo Shihan is one of the last living uchi deshi of the founder of Aikido, Ueshiba Morihei. Unlike many of his peers, he did not chose to settle abroad, but to help diffuse Aikido whithin Japan. Nowadays, he is the head of Kobayashi Dojo, one of the largest group of Dojos in Japan, with extensive ties throughout the world.

Kobayashi Yasuo is as well known in Japan for the energy that he employs teaching Aikido, as for his joviality and freedom of tone. I had never had any contact with him and it is thanks to the help of one of his close students, Matsuoka Hiromi, that the meeting could be arranged. I visited the dojo that Kobayashi Sensei built in Kodaira, in the western portion of Tokyo, on a Sunday morning and managed to get a glimpse of the very special atmosphere that fills the dojo. Considering how little I knew about him, I asked Mihály Dobróka, a Hungarian Aikidoka living in Japan who frequently trains with Kobayashi Sensei to assist me in conducting the interview.

A resident of Japan for nearly a decade, Guillaume Erard trains at the Aikikai Hombu Dojo, where he received the 5th Dan from Aikido Doshu Moriteru Ueshiba. He also holds a 3rd Dan in Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu, the secretive art that Morihei Ueshiba learned from Sokaku Takeda. Erard is Deputy Secretary of International Affairs of the Daito-ryu Aiki-jujutsu Shikoku Headquarters. He is also passionate about science and education and holds a PhD in Molecular Biology.